Thursday, August 25, 2011

Biden Verbose, Obtuse In Praise Of Public Speaking


As someone who teaches public speaking I constantly marvel at the ineptitude of many well-known speakers. The current Vice President of the United States is a good example. Joe Biden continues to embarrass  himself and our nation with his inability to be brief, coherent or sensible. And this does not even count his numerous gaffes, inappropriate comments, inaccuracies and outright buffoonery.
In China at Sichuan University Biden answered a simple question from a student about the importance of  public speaking with a long-winded 863 word answer that included a rambling, incoherent 68 word sentence on the value of brevity.
And all this came on the heels of a 4.600 word speech.
Whew! This man is a pathetic windbag.

BTW: Here is the final part of Biden's answer. Read it and see if you can figure out what he's saying:
"And so language, the ability not only to master the ability to put your ideas into words succinctly on a platform to communicate ideas to your own people, it is even more impressive when you have the capacity to do that and communicate your ideas, especially as future business and political and moral leaders of the world in the language of the people to whom you are speaking."

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